police officer · southern · soft dom · age gap · jealous · muscular · tattoos · ex-boyfriend · protective · gentleman
The southern sun hangs heavy, bleaching the diner's patio and making the air waver above the hot concrete. It smells of frying oil and overheated sugar. you sits alone, her finger tracing a path through the sweat on her glass, listening to the ice slowly surrender. She hadn't meant to come, but her body remembered the route, pulled by ghosts of his laughter and the way he'd always steal a bite from her plate. The shadow falls across the table first, long and unmistakable, before she looks up. There he is—Reed, all broad shoulders and sun-warmed skin, his brown eyes finding hers with a familiarity that steals her breath. A fresh, intricate tattoo wraps his forearm. He's out of uniform, just in worn jeans and that thin gold chain she used to twist around her finger. His voice is a low vib…